Soccer Time and Cousin Time

Soccer season has begun!  Hudson and cousin Anderson are doing great and loving it.  They are both #4 , thought that was cute.  Hudson has had two games, one win and one tie.  He is one of the youngest on the team, but definitely not the smallest.  His competitive spirit is highly noticeable on the field; he is aggressive and not afraid to go after the ball.  He still needs to work on listening to the coaches on the sideline, but I may blame that on Chris and his yelling to "help" his son.  And Hudson has yet to tackle someone during a game.  Yes, that did in fact happen during a SOCCER practice.  Again, not pointing the finger, but that may have had something to do with his football-obsessed daddy.  Thankfully, the parents laughed and I was not judged...at least not in public at that point in time.

 

We had a "cousin swap" last weekend, where Claire spent the night with us and Hudson went to the Bockelman house with Anderson.  The boys did the YMCA "parents night out" and got to stay up late, eat McDonald's, then wake up early and play video games and do "boy stuff"...which apparently included lots of farting, burping and pooping (in the toilet thankfully).  Poor Aunt Shannon.  I definitely got the better deal with housing the divas.  We invited the Welter girls (Delainey, Rowan and Baby Isla) over for dress up time and play time.  The girls were perfect...quiet, clean, and happy little ladies!

My girlfriend Jen and I were even able to make a diaper cake for another girlfriend.  No way we could have done that with a bunch of crazy boys running around the house.  Baby Isla thought the diaper cake was the coolest thing ever :)

Claire spent the night and they continued to do all things girly.  Adley is no longer "Baby Adley," she can hang with the big kids now.  They did wigs, dance costumes, princess dresses and lots of karaoke to Frozen.  It was an early wake up call, about 6:45am, but they played quietly, peacefully and never argued or fought about toys.  #winning

Adley and Claire singing Let it Go!

https://youtu.be/Hczl3SxTzDE

The next day, they even had to match in Peppa Pig shirts, skirts, top-knots and sneakers for the park.

The Kemp kids had their yearly checkups and are growing like weeds.  Hudson started Kindergarten and loves both his teachers.  He always tells me how he starts off the day "in the yellow" which means he is not listening, but then he "does better and makes it to blue and purple" by the end of the day (those are the good colors).  I guess I can call that a win.  He now loves riding the bus, but was nervous a first.  His big concern was that he would miss the bus to get to kindergarten in the morning.  He kept requesting I take him to daycare "when the lights turn on", aka 6:30 am, so he wouldn't miss the bus.  Poor guy!  Who knew kindergarten could be so stressful?!  The bus comes at 9am by the way...but I politely agreed with his request to calm his nerves.

Hudson (age 5) - Height: 46 inches (90th %), Weight: 48 lbs (75th %)

Adley (age 3) - Height: 37 inches (50th %), Weight: 34.2 lbs (75th %)

Adley is finding her voice (which is still high-pitched and squeaky), but if she knows you are watching her, she will freeze like a statue.  Her favorite colors are pink, purple and rainbow.  Below is her favorite dress, aka as the "big fat pink dress" according to Hudson.  She loves to read and continues to memorize books.  And nine months later, we are STILL singing Jingle Bells as a bedtime song.  Can't believe it will actually be the holidays soon and that song will be relevant again.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend planned.  We will be celebrating Lolly's birthday, hanging with friends and hopefully getting in one last pool day.  Then Chris and I head to Paris on Tuesday.  Keep us in your prayers for a safe trip there and back.  And keep LollyPop in your prayers as well...they will be watching our children!

Adley turns THREE!

We officially have a THREE year old in the house, woop woop!  We celebrated Adley's birthday and she was fortunate to have all her cousins by her side.  The Wilson crew flew in from Germany for a week and were able to stay with us for a couple days.  Samantha brought back European clothes for the Kemp kids...swim trunks for Hudson and Germany soccer gear for both.  Adley now requests to wear her "soccer dress" to every practice or soccer game of Hudson's...such a supportive sister.

Hudson's first soccer game was this weekend...notice the dress again!

 We blew up the water slide and had a family cookout in honor of the princess turning three.  She is only lucky little girl to have such amazing big cousins.  They played so well together!

The birthday girl got all things girlie....lots of Minnie, Elsa, Moana and princess books.  Even a gazillion princess dresses!

Below is the chaos I was dealing with the day before the birthday party.  Thanks to cousin Hannah and her hand-me-downs, I had all these dresses, tiaras, wands and wigs to organize in her new wardrobe.  Up until recently, Adley has been deathly afraid to play dress up.  She would try on shoes, but that was about it.  So my hope was that if her two big cousins showed her how, she would want to join in on the fun.  We are slowly making progress.

The older girls tried their best, but we could only get fairy wings on the birthday girl that day...

 After a week of daily exposure and hype about this wardrobe set, she finally put on a crown and a one purple dress.  She is still hesitant about all the other dresses but she is OBSESSED with a Rapunzel wig (which I have since combed out and attempted to re-braid....it looks marginally better, maybe.)

We even got a visit from Pop Wilson for Adley's birthday!

Mimi and Pop Wilson got Adley this cool candle that sings "Happy Birthday" while spinning around and opening up into a flower of 14 candles.  Adley was terrified of it.  The other five kids thought it was the most amazing thing ever.  Adley refused to blow out the candles.  Her cousins eagerly and happily obliged.

After a long plane ride from Brazil that included cancellations and delayed flights, Uncle Brandon finally made it to Ohio!  So we took the crew to the neighborhood pool.

Even played some twister....these kids were bottomless pits of energy.

Then came her official birthday on August 12th.  Damien, the Elf on the Shelf, made an appearance and decorated a birthday chair and brought her a birthday donut.  Adley woke up at 630 am and immediately ran downstairs looking for her elf.  It was sweet.

We have a big couple weeks ahead of us!  Hudson starts AM Kindergarten (Ms. Stover's Class) at Clearcreek Elementary and then will have Ms. Shena for PM private kindergarten.  Adley moves up to the Preschool classroom.  Both kids have their yearly checkups this week and soccer season has just begun. Then Chris and I will be jetting off to Paris for a few days to celebrate our 9th anniversary.  Lots of excitement to come!  Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Birthday Boy and the Birthday Dog!

It's been over a month since the last post, all due to a summer booked with birthdays, play dates, pool time and anything else fun and exciting.  We celebrated Hudson's 5th birthday on July 4th and it was a blast!  We had a backyard cookout with 40 of our closest friends and had the bounce house and water slide up. The sun was shining, the kids were laughing and it was a great holiday.

 

Hudson finally got his 2-wheeled scooter, which apparently is what the "big kids" ride.  There was also lots of Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, board games and a whopping 6 Super Soakers that were among the gifts.  And a life-size Jenga game, which I have been having fun with as well.

Below is Adley's BFF, Rowan, and they were inseparable at the birthday bash.  They giggle, hug and always have the best time.  Rowan is also known as Hudson's "real girlfriend."  Apparently he has lots of girlfriends, but Rowan is his REAL one because per Hudson: "she likes me the most and follows me everywhere."  And there is probably some truth behind that statement.

Hudson has been dying/demanding/begging to go to Kings Island and stay late to watch the fireworks.  I finally caved and we did it the weekend before his actual birthday...it was a special date night with mommy.  I found it to be nothing spectacular or incredible (coming from someone who anticipated Thunder Over Louisville style fireworks).  But he loved it, so that made it all worth while.  He even stayed up until 11pm and slept in till 9am the next day!

 Damien, The Elf on the Shelf, graced us with his presence on Hudson's actual birthday.  He brought the traditional "birthday donut" and decorated a special chair for the birthday boy. 

And then the REAL surprise came that evening.... a surprise for the entire Kemp family.  So 24 hours before Hudson's official birthday, my girlfriend Jen informed me about a yellow lab that had been homeless for a month and needed a home.  Long story short, but her friend was housing this purebred, micro-chipped, unclaimed two year old dog for about a week.  Chris and I were able to last minute coordinate our work schedules, meet the pup, fall in love with him and get him to our house by 5pm before I picked the kids up from daycare.  OMG, we became dog owners again!  Meet Brady... 

 When I picked Hudson up from school that day, I kept quizzing him about one last gift:  

Me: "Hudson, you have one more big present, what do you think it is?"

Hudson: "A cake"

Me: "No, you already got like three of those."

Hudson: "A toy."

Me: "No, you already got a million of those.  It is not edible and it is not a toy.  Guess again..."

Hudson: "A ROCK! Thank you mommy, thank you!!"

Like really, a rock?!?  He has always loved to "rock" with his daddy, but I didn't know the obsession was this intense.  Rocking, as Chris calls it, is where he and kids go around the woods and neighborhood, collect both small and large rocks, and place them in the creek bed behind our house.  This has been an ongoing event for the past 3 years.  That is all I can explain...it makes no sense to me.  But Hudson was legit excited about getting a rock at first.  Thankfully, he was even more pumped about getting a dog.  He wanted to name him "Mr. Tom Brady," but we were able to convince him otherwise, so Brady it became. 

Brady was very skiddish and afraid of everything at first.  He wouldn't walk down stairs, he wouldn't walk through a doorway and any noise would send him into a panic.  He didn't even know how to walk on a leash.  But after three weeks, lots of love and TONS of treats, he has made immense progress on becoming a perfect pup for our family.  Adley has given him over a dozen reasons to bite or snap at her (jumping on him, dragging him around on the leash, pulling on his tail, etc), but he continues to be patient and kind to her.  

Brady had some dog-training with Lolly and myself and also got to meet his dog-cousin Arlo.  

We even got Brady neutered.  I think he legit hated me for a couple days.  Just look at those eyes!!  I clearly betrayed his trust that day, ha!

After all the birthday celebrations and chaos calmed down, we went to Kings Island last weekend and got some BIG NEWS.  Hudson finally hit the 46 inch mark!  This meant more roller coaster options for him (and Chris).  Chris has been working very diligently this summer to get this kid tall.  And by "working hard,"  I mean having Hudson wear Timberland boots (with his shorts), spiking his hair and even showing him how to "stretch his neck" to be taller.  This cautious, protective mama no longer has to worry about her boys being bad and breaking the rules....at least at the amusement park that is.

And only nine more days before this little diva turns THREE!  We can't wait to celebrate Miss Adley.  Happy Friday y'all!